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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Jul 1, 2008, at 7:55 AM, Warren wrote:

> > Just measured. It is nine by eighteen by fifty-four inches.
> >
> > I make it at about 865 pounds.
>
> That sounds like an old stair step. Or a future one. All that  
> remains of the
> smokehouse behind the homeplace is a piece of granite about that  
> size. The
> front doorstep.
>
> In the front yard is a similar stone, now at grade, laid on axis  
> with the
> front porch. From this I know where the front driveway used to be,  
> and where
> one stepped down out of the carriage.

Yeah, such stones are not moved without some thought and effort. This  
one was found along the stream west of the house about seven hundred  
feet, above a low waterfall. Some members here will remember Brian  
Bonner. He and Susan came for a visit driving a rugged 4WD, I think  
Land Rover. At some point he asked if there was something he could do  
for me. I said there is this stone that I lust for but I don't have a  
way to move it. He had a winch on his rig and brought it close to the  
house for me.

Another very similar in size was dug up by the county grader just the  
other side of the crossing. I drug it to the back of the house with  
the old 4WD farm truck and spent about a half day getting it into  
position as a step into the pantry. There was already one similar  
there, so now there are two. And one steps onto those big guys up off  
a piece of Tennessee black shale given as a gift from the Baptist  
preacher father of a friend I visited in central Tennessee.

Yes, I like stone. The stone wall behind the kitchen stove has a two- 
piece shelf made with black stone from the barn foundation of our  
Wisconsin farm. Also in that wall is a smooth black stone from a  
Hawaiian beach.

Yet to be embedded in their final home are a couple yellow stones from  
Yellowstone Park. Also a couple from a Big Sur road cut. Also some  
from Quartzsite, Arizona. I muse of a fireplace with stones from all  
fifty states.